a magistrate at Rome invested with regal authority. This officer was first chosen during the Roman wars against the Latins. The consuls being unable to raise forces for the defence of the state, because the plebeians refused to enlist if they were not discharged of all the debts which they had contracted with the patricians, the senate found it necessary to elect a new magistrate with absolute and uncontrollable power to take care of the state. The dictator remained in office for six months, after which he was again elected if the affairs of the state seemed to be desperate; but if tranquillity was re-established, he generally resigned his power before the time had expired. He knew no superior in the republic, and even the laws were subjected to him. He was called dictator, because dictus, named by the consul, or quoniam dictis ejus pereat populus, because the people implicitly obeyed his command. He was named by the consul in the night, viae voces, and his election was confirmed by the augurs. As his power was absolute, he could proclaim war, levy forces, conduct them against an enemy, and disband them at his pleasure. He punished as he pleased, and from his decision there lay no appeal, at least till later times. He was preceded by twenty-four lictors with the fasces; and during his administration, all other officers, except the tribunes of the people, were suspended. In short, he was the master of the republic. But amidst all this independence he was not permitted to go beyond the borders of Italy; he was always obliged to march on foot in his expeditions; and he never could ride in difficult and laborious marches without previously obtaining formal leave from the people. He was chosen only when the state was in imminent danger from foreign enemies or inward seditions. In the time of a pestilence a dictator was sometimes elected, as also in order to hold the comitia, or to celebrate the public festivals, or drive a nail into the capitol, by which superstitious ceremony the Romans believed that a plague could be averted or the progress of an enemy stopped. But this office, so